Pharmacogenomics News and Research

The terms pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics are often used interchangeably to describe a field of research focused on how genes affect individual responses to medicines. Whether a medicine works well for you—or whether it causes serious side effects—depends, to a certain extent, on your genes.

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Agena Bioscience, Inc., a portfolio company of Telegraph Hill Partners (THP), today acquired the Bioscience business of Sequenom, Inc., which sells the MassARRAY® System for mass spectrometry-based detection of nucleic acids in research and clinical laboratories.

GEN Publishing recently introduced Clinical OMICs a semi-monthly digital publication focusing on the application of OMICs technologies in clinical settings. These advanced techniques, such as next-gen sequencing, are beginning to transform medical care just as they revolutionized basic life science research over the past decade-and-a-half.

Personalis, Inc., a leading provider of genome-based diagnostics, announced today that its onsite clinical laboratory has received accreditation from the College of American Pathologists (CAP), meeting the highest standard of excellence in clinical laboratory practices.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine will present results of three different studies evaluating implications and feasibility of genome sequencing at the ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting this week in Nashville, Tenn.

ValueOptions, Inc. a health improvement company specializing in mental and emotional well-being and recovery, and Genomind, a personalized medicine company, today announced an innovative study that uses pharmacogenomic testing to treat patients diagnosed with psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Immunogenetics experts at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have developed a unique laboratory test to characterize the genes that encode HLA molecules. The test relies on faster, more comprehensive gene sequencing technology to type human leukocyte antigens (HLAs)--complex, highly variable proteins on cell surfaces that are essential to immune function.

To date, tests have only been carried out on cells, but a piece of research conducted by the Department of Genetics at the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Medicine in collaboration with MD Anderson and the CNIO is opening up the door for the treatment of lymphoma types that have a lower survival rate. The study of the molecular characteristics of the tumours would enable molecules that are altered in a specific way to be identified and turned into new therapeutic targets that would improve the prognosis of patients with chemoresistant lymphomata.

People inherit different versions of any particular gene, and some genes affect how patients process and metabolize medicines. This especially holds true for people with cardiovascular (CV) disease. They may be fast, slow or non-metabolizers and might also react badly (with serious adverse events) to certain drug therapies or not at all.

Which antiplatelet medication is best after a coronary stent? The costly and potential life-or-death question lingers after most of the 600,000 angioplasties performed every year in the United States. The answer may lie in your genes, but professional cardiovascular societies and many working cardiologists question the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent recommendation that patients undergo genetic testing before taking Plavix (clopidogrel bisulfate).

Three Kaiser Permanente Colorado researchers have been named co-recipients of the prestigious Drug Therapy Research Literature Award, an award presented annually by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Foundation.

The National Institutes of Health has renewed its prestigious Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) with the Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) in the amount of $29 million over the next five years to support innovative research in genomics, wireless technology and bioinformatics toward individualizing medicine.

Personalis, Inc., the leading provider of advanced medical exome and genome sequencing and interpretation services today announced the launch of an early access program to the Personalis ACE Clinical Exome, a single test that integrates enhanced exome sequencing with genome-wide structural variant detection to increase diagnostic yield.

The discovery of genetic differences affecting up to a third of the population could take the guesswork out of prescribing the correct dose of 25 percent of drugs currently on the market, researchers say.

From Promise to Practice is the title and the main message of the second annual Individualizing Medicine Conference at Mayo Clinic, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Physicians from more than 40 states and several countries will be arriving in Minnesota to hear and learn about the latest developments and research in genomic research and how to move these discoveries into the medical practice.

Gentris Corporation, a global leader in pharmacogenomics and biorepository solutions, announced today that it is expanding its genomic biomarker offering with the launch of Affymetrix GeneChip Human Transcriptome Array services.

UC San Francisco will receive $4.5 million over the next five years for a pilot project to assess whether large-scale gene sequencing aimed at detecting disorders and conditions can and should become a routine part of newborn testing.

There is much research that shows that therapy dogs can help reduce stress and improve emotional well-being in vulnerable individuals. Rachel McPherson talks about this research that the work done by The Good Dog Foundation.

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